The present invention relates to trash compactors. More particularly, the invention relates to industrial and commercial trash compactors.
The ecology moment has focused and continues to focus interest in several technological areas. One of these areas is the treatment and disposal of trash. This is especially true with respect to marine vessels and off-shore drilling platforms. No longer is it appropriate to simply discharge the trash into the water.
One way of preliminarily treating the trash prior to ultimate disposal is compaction wherein the trash is subjected to forces which compress and distill the trash into a compact and manageable form. This conserves space until the trash can ultimately be disposed in a suitable manner.
Trash compactors have taken many forms and have been designed for both industrial and home use. Trash compactors which are used in the home, are generally lightweight units designed for light applications. Household type trash is relatively easy to compact and is generally not accumulated in large quantities. Accordingly, consumer designs have focused on units which are affordable to the consumer, which have a pleasing design, and which are sufficiently but not excessively rugged.
Commercial and industrial trash compactors are of a more heavyweight design than consumer versions. This allows them to handle greater quantities of trash and also trash which is more difficult to compact. However, this requires the application of different design parameters to handle the larger loads. Because greater quantities of trash are compacted, provisions must be made for removal of the trash from the compactor. Also, because of the greater quantities of trash and the resistance to compacting, industrial compactors must be designed with frames and power units which can handle the increased loads.
Numerous industrial designs have been proposed and built. However, these units tend to be large and cumbersome. Additionally, they make inefficient use of available space. In marine vessels and offshore drilling platforms where space is at a premium, a trash compactor which utilizes a substantial amount of space defeats the purpose of compacting the trash. Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for a commercial and industrial trash compactor which is efficient, rugged, and which utilizes minimal space. Such a device is disclosed in claimed herein.